


Just Another Day

by orphan_account



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (2012)
Genre: Aftermath, Gen, New York Cleanup, POV Original Character
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-05-15
Updated: 2013-05-15
Packaged: 2017-12-11 23:08:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,910
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/804297
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>He had joined SHIELD to do something exciting with his life, to be a hero. They had told him that the unsung heroes were just as important, and handed him a mop.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Just Another Day

“You’ve reached Damage Control, how may I direct your call this evening?”

“This is Director Fury, we’re going to need a clean-up crew in Manhattan.”

“And what sort of scale are we looking at?”

“Let’s say a six-block radius out of the Library.”

“Sir, please clarify, do you mean radius or diameter?”

“Son, I mean radius. And I’m being conservative at that.”

“We’ll send someone out there right away.”

“You might want to send several someones. And possibly a crane.”

“Yes sir, we are watching the news right now.”

Danny hung up the phone and allowed himself a moment of despondency. He had joined SHIELD to do something exciting with his life, to be a hero. They had told him that the unsung heroes were just as important, and handed him a mop. Now here he was, six years later and all he had achieved was to be the guy who managed the mops. And the cranes, and the trucks, and the compensation for the damages. Sometimes he thought he might never get the smell of the explosions out of his hair.

The rest of the crew was sitting around the break room, watching the news and studiously not looking at him. There was Hannah, old and slow and angrier than a tracker jacker, Stellan, who had arrived from Sweden about six months earlier and barely spoke any English, and Luke, huge and heavy and sweet as a kitten, bless him. Old Harkin would be downstairs, organising supplies, tidying up, whatever he thought needed to be done.

Harkin was the man that Danny respected, even more than he respected some of the legendary agents like Coulson and Romanoff. Because Harkin had been working Damage Control for twenty-seven years, he had been offered promotions all over the place, but he stayed right where he was because he wanted to see the job done right. And even though Danny couldn’t understand it, and he would have been out of there like a shot if a better offer came along, he had to respect an ethic like that.

“They’re serious?” Hannah spat, not even bothering to turn around.

“Afraid so. Let’s suit up.”

“But Danny, there is alien equipment out there, what do we do with this?”

Of course, Stellan hadn’t been around during Loki’s first visit. “We let Haz Mat pick that stuff up. They’ll store it properly. Everything else is ours; masonry, glass, cars, whatever.”

“But ya, tonight is date night, my girlfriend, she is going to be pissed.”

“I missed the birth of my first daughter because I was cleaning up a SHIELD mess. You need to get your priorities sorted out, son.” Harkin had come into the room unnoticed, no doubt drawn by the ringing of the phone. He was into his fifties now, and grizzled was the best word to describe him, but there was a certain air about him, his dark, lined face, and his deliberate movements, that was almost regal. Even dressed in a brown boiler suit with a broom in hand, Harkin bore himself like a king.

“Look, it’s our job, we’re on call, you know the drill. Let’s just get it done.” Danny clapped his hands, got to his feet, tried hard to inject some enthusiasm into his voice. But man, was it hard.

¬-

It was worse than Danny could have imagined. Though he looked up at the giant alien machine thing sprawled across the top of a skyscraper and suddenly he was glad he didn’t work Haz Mat. But even as he watched they lowered a fleet of four helicopters over the body skeleton carcass thing and dropped a magnet onto it, attached by a cable to each of the choppers. Then they raised it up and dragged it off. Too bad Damage Control never got cool stuff like that. All they had was brooms and buckets and skips and trucks. Somewhere in his six years Danny had come to resent superheroes and special agents and all the rest of them. These people who came along and blew stuff up and crashed into buildings and broke things and it was all very cool and cinematic at the time, but everything they broke, everything they blew up, it represented dozens of man hours and hundreds of thousands of dollars to get it cleaned up and straightened out and all put back in its proper place. And the worst part was that not a single one of those superheroes or special agents or anyone else ever gave a rotten damn about the guys who had to come along after them and clean it all up. He’d been there for the Iron Man nonsense, he’d gone out to New Mexico and seen that mess, he’d flown over to Germany to clean the blood off the altar and smooth over the mess about the national park that Thor had shattered. He was like that Alan Bennett quote; following behind with the bucket.

Luke came up beside him, shaking his head. “Still, it’s better than the eyeball thing in Stuttgart. That was pretty disgusting.”

Danny gave him a weak smile. “Yes it was.”

Luke and Hannah got to drive the bulldozers, shovelling the bricks and broken buildings into a fleet of trucks that had been provided by the army. Hannah loved driving the bulldozer, said it made her feel like a man. Danny chose never to think too deeply about that statement. Stellan was supposed to survey the area, assess the extent of the damage. His girlfriend lived somewhere nearby and Danny suspected he might not be back for a while. That left Old Harkin collecting glass and Danny supervising. They usually got about fifty or sixty army recruits to help them out. Usually dumb, green muppets who couldn’t tell the front end of a forklift from the back. Tonight was just like every other night, until one man walked up to him.

This man wasn’t like the others; he was taller, for a start, and he wasn’t wearing a uniform. His face was smeared with debris and he was walking like he’d been hit in the stomach.

“I’m sorry sir, you can’t be here,” Danny said.

“It’s OK, I’m military.”

Danny squinted at him, glancing pointedly between him and all the grunts running around in fatigues. “You don’t look it.”

“Captain Rogers.”

“Wait a second,” Danny stopped, blinked, stared up at him. He wasn’t wearing the spangly outfit, but there was definitely a resemblance. “The Captain Rogers?”

“Yes sir.”

“So what are you doing here? Why aren’t you, like, celebrating or something?”

“I wanted to lend a hand.”

“Look, you guys might not respect what we do, but we are necessary and I don’t appreciate you coming down here and mocking us like this.” Danny huffed through his nose and crossed his arms over his chest.

“Mocking?” Rogers looked genuinely shocked. “No, I really want to help out.”

“You do?”

“I do.”

There was a beat of silence. They had never trained him to deal with this. “Well, I guess, sure, I mean, absolutely. Are you sure you want to be here?” Danny was staring at him, waiting for the other shoe to drop, for someone to start laughing at the big joke. But there was nothing, just the polite, open face of one of the greatest superheroes in the world.

“What kind of man would I be if I didn’t help clean up my own mess?”

-

Six hours later Danny’s phone rang. He was manoeuvring the crane, loading some burnt out cars onto a trailer, and he only just got it in time. “Hello?”

“Daniel Evans, what are you doing?”

“Hey honey, we got called in.”

“On this alien invasion shit?”

“Yep, this alien invasion shit.”

“Well when will you be home?”

“It’s pretty messy. Our shift ends pretty much now.”

Danny glanced around while he was talking and he noticed, on the other side of the street, a sight he had never even imagined in all his life. Old Harkin was there, regal and unflagging as ever, broom in hand, sweeping a pile of dust and glass and little bits of debris into a bag. And that bag was being held open for him by Steve Rogers. Something about that scene struck Danny and all of a sudden he found himself welling up with pride. A pride that he hadn’t felt in years.

“Honey?”

“Yeah?”

“I don’t think I’m going to be home for a while. We still have a lot of work to do.”

There was silence on the other end of the phone and for a moment Danny thought his wife was too angry to speak. But then she sighed and he could almost hear her smiling on the other end of the line. “I’m proud of you. For what you’re doing.”

“I think I am too.”

“Just get home safe, whenever you get here.”

“I will.”

Danny rang off the phone and glanced at his watch. He stepped out of the crane and gestured to the rest of the team. They gathered around him, dirty and dust-stained and stinking of sweat.

“Right folks, it’s quitting time, so if you want to clock off, don’t let me stop you.”

“Are you staying?” Luke asked in that small, soft voice he had.

Danny nodded. “There’s still a lot of work to do, and Lord knows, these guys can’t manage their way out of a paper bag.”

“If you’re staying, Daniel, then so am I,” Harkin murmured. He nodded his head just once and Danny felt like he had received a blessing from a king.

“I’m in.”

“Rogers, you don’t have to do this. We appreciate the help but really, we can handle it.” Danny glanced at him, at the sagging shoulders and the tired eyes. “You look like you could use a break.”

“Yeah, well, right back at you, son.”

Danny smiled and nodded slightly. “Well, I can’t make you leave.”

“I want to stay too. I want to help.” Luke was almost shy about his offer, like he expected Danny to reject it. But Harkin clapped him on the shoulder and he started to smile.

“My mother’s staying at mine. Anything to keep me out of the house,” Hannah snapped.

Stellan looked between them all and then he rolled his eyes. “My girlfriend, she is already pissed at me, what the hell, I’ll stay too.”

Danny looked around at his crew and he felt a moment of great pride, like he had the day his son took his first steps. “We have a part to play in all of this. And even though no one else in the world even knows that you exist, you should know that I, at least, appreciate your fine service,” he told them.

“Jesus, when did you turn into a woman, ya? Let’s get back to work.” Stellan shook his head, chuckling with laughter.

The moment was lost, they each turned back to their respective tasks and Danny pulled himself back into the crane, muttering under his breath about ungrateful staff and extra effort and what could they really expect him to do with people like this? The sun was rising over Manhattan and already New Yorkers were circulating around the wreckage, demanding to know when they could have their street back, when would the subway be open, why couldn’t they get back into their apartments and, most important, who was going to pay for all of this?

**Author's Note:**

> Based on an idea by CloudAtlas, who wanted to have short story about the poor schmuck whose job it is to clean up the city after superheroes plough through destroying everything. And also because [Chris Evans is the sweetest guy ever to exist](http://fuckyeahbehindthescenes.tumblr.com/post/33372866909/chris-evans-often-helped-set-builders-clean-up).


End file.
